Child killed, pregnant mom hurt in dog attack

May 8, 2014

Police car / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Written by

Robin Brown

The News Journal

FELTON — A 4-year-old was killed and his pregnant mother injured by three pit bulls that attacked them Wednesday at a friend's home in Kent County, state police said.

All three dogs are to be euthanized.

The incident occurred about 4 p.m. in the 900 block of Edwardsville Road, about 8 miles west of Felton, Master Cpl. Gary E. Fournier said late Wednesday night.

The boy's name is being withheld so the rest of his family can be notified of the tragedy, Fournier said.

The 24-year-old woman and her son, who live in the Camden area, were visiting one of the mother's female friends when the attack occurred, Fournier said. The women were in the house and the son was alone in the unfenced yard with the dogs, he said.

The boy had been around the dogs "numerous times in the past" without incident, Fournier said.

The mother at one point "looked out the window and observed her son being attacked by the dogs," he said.

She ran outside, while her friend called 911.

As the woman tried to save her son from the dogs, she was bitten repeatedly on both arms, Fournier said.

Two heating, ventilation and air-conditioning repairmen who were working at the house also tried to save the boy, he said. They tried "fending off the animals with PVC piping and assisting the mother from the attacking dogs," he said.

State police and emergency medical services personnel who responded to the scene began first aid, but the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

His body was turned over the Office of the State Medical Examiner for an autopsy, he said.

The boy's mother, who is several months pregnant, was transported by ambulance to Kent General Hospital in Dover for treatment of her injuries and observation related to her pregnancy, Fournier said.

The dogs were removed by the First State Animal Center and SPCA near Camden. "The dogs were turned over to us for euthanasia," executive director Kevin Usilton said. "The owner will not get them back."